


wander astray

by Rethira



Category: Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki | Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-16
Updated: 2013-04-16
Packaged: 2017-12-08 15:33:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/763025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'll be back soon, Hana," he says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	wander astray

He leaves the groceries and his wallet outside the door. He wants to go in, wants to wrap himself around his little family and keep them safe forever and ever. But there’s a restless, shiftless energy under his skin – he wants to run, wants to hunt, wants to give Hana a nice, warm meal. She’s probably tired, and Yuki will be too. He wants to provide for them, even though he already has.

“I’ll be back soon, Hana,” he murmurs to the door, before turning and hurrying away.

He shifts near the canal, scrambles out of his clothes and tucks them away just to be safe. There are still pheasants about, he can smell them. Hana had liked it before, eaten it so quickly she’d burnt her tongue. But before he hunts, he runs – for the joy of it. He has Hana and Yuki and tiny, new Ame. A family he never thought he’d have.

He only just resists the urge to howl, and that’s only because he’d never be able to catch a pheasant if he scared it off.

They’re nesting now, sitting on their nests, unwilling to leave their eggs. The first nest he comes across, the hen leaves, fluttering and flying away. He ignores her and snaps up her eggs instead, and then he lets the hunt proper begin.

Not with the same hen; she flies away as soon as her eggs are gone, and he watches her flight with only slight interest. But she’s hardly the only pheasant about, and the grass is tall and thick to hide in.

He snatches up the pheasant with ease. One leap, a brief cry, and then its neck is broken. They’re still near the canal, so he scrambles down there easily enough and begins to follow it home. He has to flinch back into the shadows once or twice – humans aren’t fool enough to imagine him a dog like this. Besides, no dog would be carrying a pheasant like this.

He’s eager to get home, and maybe that’s why he slips – a slick slope beside the canal catches him unawares, and he yelps. The pheasant slides down and into the water, and even though he should leave it he doesn’t. He caught it for his family. He caught it for Hana.

He’s about to half-shift when he hears people coming, and there’s nothing to do but stay wolf, and then he’s too far out and his feet aren’t moving as they should and he can _see_ the pheasant, bobbing downstream ahead of him-

And then he’s going under, and any human rationale he had evaporates, thrown aside for pure animal instinct.

He thinks, _Hana_.

When he opens his eyes, he’s in a field of flowers, and he knows that he’ll never hold Hana again. Never carry Yuki on his shoulders, never cradle Ame in his arms. He’ll never run with them over field and mountain, never show them the world.

He looks back just slightly, and he can see Hana-

But it’s time to go now.

_Look after the children for me_.


End file.
